Migneco. Reality and Vision

A dossier exhibition in the heart of Versilia

From June 6 to September 27, 2026, the Sala Ferrario of Villa Bertelli, in Forte dei Marmi (Province of Lucca, Tuscany), hosts "Migneco. Reality and Vision", a focused anthology dedicated to Giuseppe Migneco (Messina, 1903 – Milan, 1997). Promoted by the Municipality of Forte dei Marmi and the Villa Bertelli Foundation with the support of the Fondazione Banca del Monte di Lucca, the exhibition is curated by art historian Elena Pontiggia, one of the leading scholars of 20th-century Italian art.

Twenty-two paintings, half a century of art

The exhibition route brings together twenty-two paintings created between 1939 and 1988, offering an effective synthesis of the artist's entire career. It starts from the Milanese season of the Corrente group, the movement that at the end of the 1930s opposed the official art of the regime with a free, textured, and expressionist style, leading up to the works of his full maturity. Among the exhibited paintings, Cacciatori di lucertole (1942) stands out as one of Migneco's most famous images, alongside a series of self-portraits that, from 1941 to the 1980s, run like a common thread through his entire body of work.

Reality and vision: Migneco's existential expressionism

The title of the exhibition summarizes the essence of the Messinese painter: on one hand, the realistic attention to the world, the dignity of ordinary people, fishermen, farmers, and the humble figures of his native Sicily and Lombardy; on the other, the visionary power of color, capable of transfiguring reality into intense and dramatic painting. Throughout his life, Migneco remained faithful to the human figure and the vitality of nature, interpreted through an expressionist language that intertwines civic commitment and aesthetic research.

Villa Bertelli and its protagonists

The exhibition is part of a series of in-depth studies dedicated to artists linked to the Quarto Platano Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art and continues the tradition of the great summer art exhibitions in Forte dei Marmi. The Sala Ferrario, on the first floor of the 19th-century Villa Bertelli, has been a reference point for years for exhibitions in Versilia, frequented every summer by an international audience.

Catalog and opening

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog published by Maria Pacini Fazzi. The opening is scheduled for Saturday, June 6, 2026, at 4:30 PM, in the presence of the curator. Admission to the exhibition is free for the entire duration of the event.